Nokia 8 Sirocco Smartphone Review

A smartphone for fans of design? The Nokia 8 Sirocco has an unusual name and unusual looks. Can the high-end phone please the crowd or is mainly interesting for fans of design? Let us find out in our review.

The name Sirocco actually designates the wind that regularly blows sand from the Sahara Desert into Central Europe. In the case of the Nokia, however, it stands for legendary high-quality designer phones. The Nokia 8800 Sirocco is still being traded online for high prices. Ever since Nokia started making Android smartphones, fans have been impatiently waiting for a Sirocco model - and here it is: The Nokia 8 Sirocco is available online for a price of $600 and has an unusual stainless-steel case, a camera with a Zeiss lens and pure Android. However, it is still equipped with Qualcomm's previous SoC generation. Can it keep up with current flagship devices?

Case – very stable stainless-steel case

Around the turn of the century, Nokia was famous for constantly creating new form factors for mobile phones that were still easy to use. This way, every user could find the right phone for them. The Nokia 8800 Sirocco was Nokia's 2006 spearhead. It has a sliding mechanism and high-quality metal case. The Nokia 8 Sirocco is meant to take up this tradition of unusual but high-quality designs: It has a stainless-steel case with narrow sides and looks very attractive. The strongly curved glass at the front is a real eye-catcher and even the back is covered in glass, which is good news for the strength of the antennas and looks elegant. However, the glass also shows up fingerprints and greasy marks very easily.

The Nokia 8 Sirocco weighs 176 grams (~6.2 oz) and has a 16:9 form factor, which by now can almost be considered unusual. Therefore, the device is shorter and slightly wider than the comparison devices. The phone is nice to handle, and the workmanship feels very good. The only color currently available is black with some chrome features.

The device is resistant to pressure and cannot be warped, giving it a high-quality feel. The case has an IP67 certification, which means it is protected against dust and water at a depth of up to one meter (~3 ft).

Connectivity – high storage capacity, no MHL

With 128 GB of fast UFS 2.1 storage and 6 GB of RAM, the Nokia 8 Sirocco is well-equipped for a high-end smartphone. However, you should be aware that the storage capacity of our test unit cannot be expanded with a microSD card. On the internet the Nokia 8 Sirocco is available with Dual-SIM support, which apparently can also be used for a microSD. The pure Android OS means that you have 114 GB of storage available for personal use. This should keep you going for quite a while.

The Nokia 8 Sirocco does not offer a 3.5-mm audio jack. Instead, you can connect headphones via the USB-C port. This port also supports USB-OTG, but no MHL (image output through USB-C).

left: SIM slot

right: volume rocker, standby button

bottom: speaker, USB-C port, microphone

top: microphone

Software – pure Android

Nokia uses Android One on all its smartphones, including the Nokia 8 Sirocco. This means that the manufacturer provides a pure version of Android without any big changes to the operating system and that Google promises to provide OS updates for two years. Our Nokia smartphone therefore runs the current version of Google's OS (Android Oreo 8.1) and has all current security patches installed. At the time of writing, these are from the beginning of May 2018. The device has no software pre-installed apart from the usual Google apps and users are free to set up the phone as they wish.

Communication and GPS – average Wi-Fi reception

Of course, it is a must for a high-end smartphone to offer fast Wi-Fi that supports the 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac bands. However, the Nokia 8 Sirocco shows rather moderate reception speeds in our test with the reference router Linksys EA8500. We had already noticed this with the Nokia 8. The transmission rates are on the same level as those of other flagship phones. We felt that pages loaded at average speed during our practical test while images took a while to load at first, but then appeared quite quickly after scrolling for a while. We had full reception close to the router and 50% reception at a distance of 10 meters (~33 ft) and through three walls. However, there were some occasional issues with the connection at this distance and some pages loaded very slowly or not at all. Turning the smartphone to face the router made the pages load faster again.

The LTE speed is decent at up to 600 MBit/s (download) and up to 150 MBit/s (upload) and faster than those of the Nokia 8. However, other devices such as the Sony Xperia XZ2 and the Samsung Galaxy S9 are quite a bit faster. They can reach download speeds of up to 1200 MBit/s. You would need to be sending very large amounts of data and have a mobile network that supports these speeds for these maximum speeds to be noticeable in practice. For example, Vodafone Germany offers a maximum download rate of 500 MBit/s via LTE in theory, but states on its website that independent tests have shown that the average rates in urban areas are 44.53 MBit/s (download) and 18.83 MBit/s (upload). The Nokia 8 Sirocco supports 14 LTE frequencies, which should be enough to find a suitable LTE network when on holiday. Compared to the 21 frequencies the Sony Xperia XZ2 has to offer, on the other hand, this is not much.

The Nokia phone cannot locate us indoors. It takes some time to position us outdoors, but then offers decent accuracy within 6 meters (~20 ft).

Our bike trip with the Nokia 8 Sirocco and the Garmin Edge 500, a professional navigation system for cyclists, shows very similar results in the measured routes and there seem to be hardly any issues with the smartphone's tracked route. It was actually even more precise than the Garmin Edge during our loop. However, the smartphone seems to have significant difficulties locating us correctly when using Google Maps. It takes very long to recognize our position and even then, the compass always points in the wrong direction. Overall, the Nokia 8 Sirocco can only be recommended with reservations: If you use the navigation function regularly and depend on it, you might not want to rely on this smartphone.

GPS Garmin Edge 500 – overview

GPS Garmin Edge 500 – lake

GPS Garmin Edge 500 – loop

GPS Nokia 8 Sirocco – overview

GPS Nokia 8 Sirocco – lake

GPS Nokia 8 Sirocco – loop

Telephone and Call Quality – a good microphone

Following the Android One philosophy, the Nokia's telephone app is Google's standard app. This Android app is easy to use and offers quite a lot of functions, such as direct access to contacts, a good overview of your call history and the possibility to block certain numbers. The smartphone supports VoLTE, but phone calls cannot currently be made via Wi-Fi.

The call quality is good overall, but the earpiece tends to drone a little at high volume. We did not notice any background noises and the voice of our call partner was transmitted clearly at low and medium volume. We were also impressed by the microphone: It picked up our voice very clearly. The included speakerphone mode transmitted our voices clearly even when talking very quietly.

Cameras – good main dual camera, mediocre front camera

picture taken with front camera

live Bokeh picture taken with main camera

The back of our test unit features a dual camera from Zeiss, while the front has a single lens without LED flash. Let us first talk about the selfie camera, as we were not particularly impressed by it: The pictures taken by the 5-MP sensor have very few details in light areas which leads to strange color transitions. In addition, pictures loose sharpness around the edges. In dark areas, the camera does a good job of lightening up the picture and the screen can also be used as a flash.

The back camera has a 12-MP wide-angle lens and a second lens with a 13-MP telephoto lens. At f/1.7, the main camera is quite light-sensitive and takes sharp photos even in dark settings, although they could be lightened up more. The Huawei P20 Pro does a significantly better job here. We are happy with the pictures the Nokia smartphone takes under normal lighting conditions. Colors appear natural and sharpness is good, although some details are lost in bright areas. The dual camera with different focal lengths can create a small optical zoom and also improves digital zoom. The camera can also take pictures with the Bokeh effect and has a live preview for this. In our test, this function decreased the sharpness of the main motive significantly.

Videos can be recorded in 4K with the main camera and offer very good image quality and sharpness. In addition, you can record Surround sound via three microphones. The microphones are supposed to create good recordings even in very loud surroundings. There is a slow-motion function that can make videos up to 4x slower. These videos are probably recorded at 120 FPS. The resulting effects are fun but not particularly impressive as they are not that slow.

Image Comparison

Choose a scene and navigate within the first image. One click changes the position on touchscreens. One click on the zoomed-in image opens the original in a new window. The first image shows the scaled photograph of the test device.

We did some more tests on the main camera in our lab and photographed our test chart and the ColorChecker Passport. The result was very pleasing: The sharpness of the test chart is good, and the color fields are reproduced clearly. There is only some difficulty with reproducing text on a red background.

Colors could be a little more saturated.

photo of test chart

detail of test chart

Photo of ColorChecker Passport. The target color is in the bottom half of each box.

Accessories and Warranty – a lot of accessories

HMD Global, the Nokia manufacturer's official name, has included quite a selection of accessories with the phone: There is a QuickCharge power supply plus a USB cable, a headset, a SIM tool and a Quick Start Guide as well as security information in numerous languages. In addition, users also receive a transparent hard plastic case that is definitely a good idea if you want to protect your phone from damage, but somewhat reduces the attractiveness of the smartphone. There are currently no other official accessories available for this phone in the Nokia shop.

Input Devices & Handling – a very precise touchscreen

The pre-installed keyboard app is Google's GBoard, which is fast and easy to use and offers the possibility of voice input, swiping instead of typing and changing the design of the keyboard. Other keyboard apps can be downloaded from the Google Play store.

The touchscreen is very fast, and its surface has good gliding properties. It responds reliably even at the curved edges and is easy to handle. It does not offer a glove mode for winter.

There is a fingerprint reader on the back that is easy to find due to its slightly elevated edges. It wakes and unlocks the smartphone from standby quickly and reliably.

The Android buttons are on the screen and the only two hardware buttons (volume rocker and standby button) are positioned on the right side of the case. They are made of the same material as the rest of the frame but are easy to find due to small grooves.

Display – OLED screen with blue cast

subpixel array

The 5.5-inch screen still has a 16:9 format, which is good news for displaying videos, as this format avoids the black strips on either side of the video that 2:1 displays have. The OLED screen is not bezel-free, but looks very elegant due to the curved glass. The resolution is just as high as that of any other current high-end smartphone at 2560x1440 pixels.

The screen has a brightness of 576 cd/m². This is a good value, but significantly lower than that of the Nokia 8. The Motorola Moto Z2 Force or the Samsung Galaxy S9 are quite a lot darker. The maximum brightness levels can only be reached via the ambient light sensor. If you turn that off, the maximum brightness is limited to 390 cd/m².

The brightness distribution of 85% is not as even as on other devices.

Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)

ℹ

To dim the screen, some notebooks will simply cycle the backlight on and off in rapid succession - a method called Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) . This cycling frequency should ideally be undetectable to the human eye. If said frequency is too low, users with sensitive eyes may experience strain or headaches or even notice the flickering altogether.

Screen flickering / PWM detected

250 Hz

The display backlight flickers at 250 Hz (Likely utilizing PWM) .

The frequency of 250 Hz is relatively low, so sensitive users will likely notice flickering and experience eyestrain at the stated brightness setting and below.

In comparison: 50 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 18284 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 2500000) Hz was measured.

We measured PWM flickering at 250 Hz, which can lead to headaches for sensitive users.

The contrast ratio of the screen is perfect due to how it is made: OLED screens can turn off individual pixels completely. As every pixel is illuminated separately, the screen can display almost absolute black.

The spectrophotometer and CalMAN software give us more information on color display: The color deviation is acceptable, but significantly higher than on other expensive smartphones. At least it has been improved slightly compared to the Nokia 8. The grayscales show a significant blue cast at standard settings.

There are not a lot of possibilities to adjust the white balance, so we only tested the screen in standard mode. You can also activate a blue light filter, which Google calls "Night Light".

CalMAN color accuracy – AdobeRGB

CalMAN color space – AdobeRGB

CalMAN grayscales – sRGB

CalMAN saturation – AdobeRGB

Display Response Times

ℹ

Display response times show how fast the screen is able to change from one color to the next. Slow response times can lead to afterimages and can cause moving objects to appear blurry (ghosting). Gamers of fast-paced 3D titles should pay special attention to fast response times.

↔ Response Time Black to White

4 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined

↗ 2 ms rise

↘ 2 ms fall

The screen shows very fast response rates in our tests and should be very well suited for fast-paced gaming.In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.8 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 3 % of all devices are better.This means that the measured response time is better than the average of all tested devices (24.8 ms).

↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey

4.8 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined

↗ 2.8 ms rise

↘ 2 ms fall

The screen shows very fast response rates in our tests and should be very well suited for fast-paced gaming.In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.9 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 3 % of all devices are better.This means that the measured response time is better than the average of all tested devices (39.3 ms).

blue cast at the sides

blue cast in center when looking from the side

The smartphone can be used outdoors, but the screen is quite reflective in very bright surroundings, which makes it hard to read the display. The high maximum brightness improves this slightly and the automatic brightness sensor chooses a suitable level of brightness for the current ambient light.

The viewing angles appear good at first, but you can see that the colors change behind the curved edges. This is particularly noticeable on white content: If you look at the screen from the front, there is a significant difference between the color on the main screen and the color at the rounded edges - a blue tinge. If you look at the screen from the side, you can see a clear blue cast on the entire display while the rounded edges appear white. The color changes when the blue light filter is activated, but the color deviation remains visible.

outdoor use – brightness sensor

outdoor use – maximum brightness

outdoor use – medium brightness

outdoor use – minimum brightness

viewing angles

Performance – good results

The Snapdragon 835 is not Qualcomm's fastest processor anymore. The successor 845 can be found in the Sony Xperia XZ2, for example. Although the Nokia 8 Sirocco still offers good performance with the Snapdragon 835, you can clearly see the advantage the next generation offers. But still, you will experience no issues or waiting periods with the Nokia smartphone and we are not sure that you would even notice the difference in performance in practice.

The graphics unit is a Qualcomm Adreno 540. Again, the Nokia 8 Sirocco can keep up quite well with the other models. While the newer generation still has a clear advantage, this is probably not noticeable in day-to-day use.

The browser benchmarks place the Nokia 8 Sirocco in the center field. Surfing is quick enough, but not quite as fast as on other high-end devices, the Sony Xperia XZ2 in particular. Demanding HTML-5 pages such as Google's Interland load quickly and run smoothly.

Games – want to game at 60 fps?

There are no issues when gaming at 60 FPS on the Nokia 8 Sirocco: The frame rates of the games we tested with GameBench ("Arena of Valor" and "Shadow Fight 3") are steady with only minimal drops. Simple games such as “Angry Birds 2” can also be played without any issues.

Controlling via the touchscreen and gyroscope works well.

Arena of Valor

Shadow Fight 3

Arena of Valor

Settings

Value

min

60 fps

high HD

60 fps

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Shadow Fight 3

Settings

Value

high

60 fps

minimal

60 fps

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Emissions – high heat development and throttling under load

Temperature

GFXBench battery test

The Nokia Sirocco 8 heats up strongly over the entire screen area under load, while the temperature development is limited to a small area on the back of the phone. Still, a hotspot of up to 42.3°C (~108 °F) on the back is very noticeable and makes putting the smartphone in your pocket after a long period of use rather uncomfortable, particularly in summer. The device hardly heats up while idling with a maximum of 33.7°C (~93 °F).

The high heat development already indicates that the SoC cannot keep up its performance under continuous load. We measured a drop of 23% after about 12 rounds of the Manhattan 3.1 benchmark from GFXBench.

(-) The average temperature for the upper side under maximal load is 38.7 °C / 102 F, compared to the average of 33 °C / 91 F for the devices in the class Smartphone.(±) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 40.8 °C / 105 F, compared to the average of 35.4 °C / 96 F, ranging from 22.4 to 51.7 °C for the class Smartphone.(±) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 42.3 °C / 108 F, compared to the average of 34 °C / 93 F(±) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 32.1 °C / 90 F, compared to the device average of 33 °C / 91 F.

heat map front

heat map back

Speakers

speaker test Pink Noise

The device only has a single speaker on the bottom edge. Its sound profile is very similar to that of the Nokia 8: The maximum volume of 91.1 dB(A) is impressive, but the sound is rather unbalanced with the highs being too strong. A high-end smartphone should be able to offer more, but the overall sound is still decent. Connecting the phone to Bluetooth speakers worked well and the sound was transmitted nicely.

In order to connect a 3.5-mm jack plug, you will need to use the included adapter, as the USB-C port is used for sound output. The sound is transmitted without distortions and is a lot better on high-quality headphones than via the built-in speaker. The Nokia 8 Sirocco does not have a Hi-Res Audio certification, which, nowadays, is disappointing for a high-end smartphone.

Frequency diagram (checkboxes can be checked and unchecked to compare devices)

Nokia 8 Sirocco audio analysis

(+) | speakers can play relatively loud (91.1 dB)Bass 100 - 315 Hz(-) | nearly no bass - on average 26.1% lower than median(±) | linearity of bass is average (8.1% delta to prev. frequency)Mids 400 - 2000 Hz(±) | reduced mids - on average 5.3% lower than median(+) | mids are linear (6.7% delta to prev. frequency)Highs 2 - 16 kHz(±) | higher highs - on average 12.6% higher than median(+) | highs are linear (3.5% delta to prev. frequency)Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz(±) | linearity of overall sound is average (25.3% difference to median)Compared to same class» 59% of all tested devices in this class were better, 10% similar, 31% worse» The best had a delta of 13%, average was 24%, worst was 65%Compared to all devices tested» 74% of all tested devices were better, 5% similar, 21% worse» The best had a delta of 3%, average was 21%, worst was 65%

Nokia 8 audio analysis

(+) | speakers can play relatively loud (91.6 dB)Bass 100 - 315 Hz(-) | nearly no bass - on average 22.7% lower than median(+) | bass is linear (6.4% delta to prev. frequency)Mids 400 - 2000 Hz(±) | reduced mids - on average 5.7% lower than median(+) | mids are linear (6% delta to prev. frequency)Highs 2 - 16 kHz(±) | higher highs - on average 11.9% higher than median(+) | highs are linear (5.4% delta to prev. frequency)Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz(±) | linearity of overall sound is average (23.1% difference to median)Compared to same class» 39% of all tested devices in this class were better, 13% similar, 47% worse» The best had a delta of 13%, average was 24%, worst was 65%Compared to all devices tested» 62% of all tested devices were better, 8% similar, 30% worse» The best had a delta of 3%, average was 21%, worst was 65%

Battery Runtimes – very good

Power Consumption

The Nokia 8 Sirocco does a good job at managing its power consumption. While it is not quite as energy-efficient as the Samsung Galaxy S9, it is not too far off and has better results than the Nokia 8. Its maximum consumption of 6.96 watts is quite low and the average consumption under load is also moderate.

The smartphone does not consume any power when turned off and manages on 0.14 watts when on standby.

Battery Runtimes

The Nokia 8 Sirocco has longer battery runtimes than the Nokia 8 and a battery capacity of 3.260 mAh. This is enough for 11:33 hours of our Wi-Fi test - a great result that can only be topped by the Huawei P10 Plus. Under maximum load, the phone still lasts over 5 hours. This should easily be enough for a day of use, often even two. If you only activate your smartphone occasionally to surf the web, look at messages or make a short call it should last you even longer.

The battery can be recharged without a cable or via the included QuickCharge 3.0 power supply. It takes just over 2 hours to recharge the phone fully via QuickCharge.

Verdict – The Nokia 8 Sirocco is not a high-end smartphone for everyone

Review: Nokia 8 Sirocco. Test unit provided by notebooksbilliger.de

The Nokia 8 Sirocco definitely is a smartphone for individualists; Nokia has fulfilled its promise by giving this phone its rather particular name. The phone has all the features of a current high-end mobile phone: Long battery runtimes, high performance, a high-resolution screen, gaming at 60 FPS, a decent dual camera and fast LTE. The case looks very elegant, is extremely stable and also water and dust resistant.

But the Sirocco is not perfect: Nokia would have had to find a better solution for the strange color effect the display causes on white content, dealt with the strange GPS behavior in Google Maps and equipped the device with a better front camera. The speakers can be turned up very loud, but the sound is unbalanced and there is no Hi-Res Audio certification. Heat development is quite strong under load and the SoC performance is not constant and drops significantly after a short period of time under load.

The Nokia 8 Sirocco is not perfect, but it is a good high-end smartphone for individualists.

Despite its weaknesses, the Nokia 8 Sirocco has style and can also offer a lot of advantages, including a generous set of accessories and pure Android with update guarantee. Therefore, we can recommend the Nokia 8 Sirocco to everyone who is ready to accept the weaknesses mentioned above in exchange for something different from the normal run-of-the-mill models.

When I was 12, the first computer came into the house and immediately I started tinkering around, taking it apart, getting new parts and replacing them - after all, there always had to be enough power for the current games. When I came to Notebookcheck in 2009, I was passionate about testing gaming notebooks. Since 2012, my attention has been focused on smartphones, tablets and future technologies.